Friday, April 1, 2011

Microsoft (MSFT) Targets Quality for Windows Phone 7

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is talking the progress it has made on its Windows Phone 7 platform, saying it's focusing on quality rather than quantity at this time, as far as the number of apps it's serving up.

Even so, they're still steadily growing in that regard as well, with about 36,000 registered developers for the platform, with tools for developers being downloaded approximately 1.5 million times.

Also noted is the 11,500 applications being offered, with about 7,500 of them being paid applications.

Of course those are far behind Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) and Google (Nasdaq:GOOG), although it's questionable as to value when you start getting into the number of app offerings and if they are profitable beyond a certain point for any of these companies.

Brandon Watson, Microsoft's senior director for Windows Phone, wrote in a company blog post, "For us, from the beginning, we have always been focused on quality over quantity. We recognize the importance of getting great apps on our platform and not artificially inflating the number of actual apps available to customers by listing 'wallpapers' as a category, or perhaps allowing competitor's apps to run on the platform to increase 'tonnage.'"

The comment on tonnage was a reference to Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) decision to allow Android apps to run on its soon-to-be-released BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie mentioned that the strategy would boost the "tonnage" of apps available for the PlayBook on launch.

As for Microsoft apps, they claim they're adding about 1,200 developers a wee and users are downloading a dozen apps a month.

IDC recently said they see Microsoft becoming the second-largest smartphone platform in the world by 2015, based on their partnership with Nokia (NYSE:NOK).

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